Aerial Photography Collection: Tea Fire

The Map & Imagery Lab is home to a large collection of aerial photography. Our collection documents some fascinating bits of history, including before and after views of natural disasters. In the photos below, you’ll see some of the damage along Mountain Drive caused by the 2008 Tea Fire. The first image shows the area several years before the fire, while the second image was taken just days after the fire was contained.

These images and many others were donated to MIL by the Santa Barbara County Flood Control District in 2012. This collection contains air photo flights taken after several wildfires as well as flights covering rivers and flood areas in Santa Barbara County. For more information about this and other parts of our air photo collection, see our significant holdings webpage. If you’re interested in doing aerial photography research, take a look at the Aerial Imagery Research Services webpage for guidance, or email airs [at] library [dot] ucsb [dot] edu.